Bharat Ratna Dr. Abdul Kalam is of the view that there should be adequate arrangements for the education of children in India. In this regard, along with the guardians, the government of India also can do a lot. It is his dream that by the year 2020, with the all around developments taking place in India, this country should become powerful and independent in all respects, so that the new generation, which is in its infancy, produces good and capable teachers, scientists, doctors, engineers and persons having accomplished in job-oriented courses. This will shape India into a fully developed country.
Since Dr. Kalam still remembers that he had suffered petty privations and had faced obstacles and helplessness in the early part of his life, he, as President of India, is making continuous efforts to pull the children of his country out of such privations and give them better living conditions.
For the specific knowledge of our readers some such incidents of his early life are being given here which will throw light on the kind of practical education as well as academic education he earned under the excellent guidance of his open-minded teachers, guardians and those who showed him the right path, and which proved to be a solid foundation of progress in his life.
During childhood and afterwards
Born and brought up in Tamil culture, he would sit on the floor of the kitchen and eat with his mother. His mother would place a banana leaf before him and serve rice and aromatic Sambar, a variety of sharp, home-made pickles and a dollop of fresh coconut chutney. He would go to Shiva temple every day and observe Namaz also. His respected father was very magnanimous in his behaviour and had sympathy for everyone.
Abdul Kalam’s father had great spiritual inclination. Once Abdul Kalam asked his father about the relevance of prayer and the answer he received was simply great. He explained that there was nothing mysterious about prayer. He said—‘prayer makes possible a communion of the spirit between people. When one prays, one transcends one’s body and becomes a part of the cosmos, which knows no division of wealth, age, caste, or creed.’
Abdul Kalam was a six-year-old boy when his father embarked on the project of building a wooden sailboat. The purpose was to earn money by taking pilgrims from Rameswaram to Dhanuskodi and back. He worked at building the boat on the seashore with the help of a relative, Ahmed Jallaluddin. The boat was completed and he had begun doing good business, when, one day, the boat was swept away by the tidal waves of the sea during a cyclone bringing winds of over 100 miles per hour. This was indeed very unfortunate for him. The cyclone caused heavy devastation causing loss of lives to thousands of passengers travelling in a train which was passing through the Pamban bridge. This was for the first time that Abdul Kalam was made to witness the cruel aspect of Nature.
1. Abdul Kalam’s sister, Zohra, was later married to Ahmed Jallaluddin. Ahmed Jallaluddin, apart from having become his brother-in-law, had become his close friend also. Jallaluddin would talk generally of spiritual matters to him. He would circle around the temple with Abdul Kalam with great reverence and give him divine knowledge.
2. As books were a scarce commodity in that area, he would go to the personal library of STR Manickam, a former revolutionary, and assuage his hunger of knowledge.STR Manickam, seeing his interest in books, would encourage him to read as much as he could.
3. Becoming financially self-supporting was a lesson that he had learnt since his childhood by selling tamarind seeds to a provision shop on the Mosque Street and earning one anna a day. But the first wages he earned, for which he still feels the surge of pride, was with the help of his first cousin, Samsuddin, by selling newspapers for him.
4. Young children love being told bedtime stories, and this requirement of Abdul Kalam and other children of the family was met by Abdul Kalam’s mother and grandmother by narrating events from the Ramayana and from the life of the Prophet.
5. Abdul Kalam, when he was in the fifth standard at the Rameswaram Elementary School, used to wear a cap which marked him as a Muslim. He used to sit in the front row next to his classmate, Ramanadha Sastry. One day a new teacher came to their class and saw Abdul Kalam sitting in the front row with Ramanadha Sastry, who was son of a Hindu priest. The fact that a Muslim boy sitting with a Hindu priest’s son was something he found impossible to digest. He ordered Abdul Kalam to go and take his place in the back row. This was quite saddening for Abdul Kalam and Ramanadha Sastry both. But child Abdul Kalam obeyed his teacher and quietly shifted to his seat in the back row.
After school, both the children returned home and reported the matter to their respective parents. Ramandha Sastry’s father, Lakshmana Sastry, was so infuriated to hear the incident that he immediately summoned the teacher and admonished him for spreading the poison of inequality and communal intolerance in the minds of innocent children. As if this was not enough he also asked the teacher to either apologize for his behaviour or quit the school and the island.
The above incident left a lasting impression on the mind of Abdul Kalam and awakened the feelings of secularism in him.
6. There is yet another incident which will throw light on the social taboos which existed in Indian societies during those days.
Abdul Kalam’s science teacher, Sivasubramania Iyer, was an orthodox Brahmin, but he had great love for Abdul Kalam. His wife was extremely conservative. Sivasubramania Iyer, on the other hand, was something of a rebel. He believed in breaking the prevalent social taboos which were foolishly observed by the ignorant people in the Indian societies during those days. And, this was not restricted to mere belief only, he also did everything to break social barriers so that people from varying backgrounds could mingle easily. He used to say to Abdul Kalam—“Kalam, I want you to develop so that you are on par with the highly educated people of the big cities.”
One day he invited Abdul Kalam to his home for a meal, but his wife, who was very conservative, refused to serve a Muslim boy in her ‘ritually pure’ kitchen. But Sivasubramania Iyer was determined. He, instead of becoming angry or getting purturbed, served him with his own hands and ate his meal with Abdul Kalam. Not only this, Sivasubramania Iyer was so determined that he invited Abdul Kalam again to join him for dinner. He said—“Once you decide to change the system, such problems have to be confronted.” Next time, after a week, when Abdul Kalam went to his teacher’s home to join him for a dinner, his teacher’s wife took him inside her kitchen and served him with her own hands.
This, on the one hand, brought reform in the wife of Sivasubramania Iyer, on the other left a lasting and good impression on the mind of Abdul Kalam.
7. Abdul Kalam’s father knew that his loved child had to leave Rameswaram if he had to find better avenues; and so, when Abdul Kalam was leaving for Ramanathapuram for enrolment at Schwartz High School, his father said—“…You must forego your longing for the land of your memories to move into the dwelling place of your greater desires; our love will not bind you nor will our needs hold you…May God bless you, my child!”
8. His teacher, Iyadurai Solomon, used to say—“To succeed in life and achieve results, you must understand and master three mighty forces—desire, belief and expectation.” “With faith, you can change your destiny,” he would say.
9. There is a proverb—‘Coming events cast their shadows before.’ The following event will show how appropriate this proverb is in the case of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam :
One day, when Abdul Kalam was a student of fourth standard, his mathematics teacher, Ramakrishna Iyer, was teaching another class. He, like any innocent child would, happened to wander into that classroom. This infuriated Ramakrishna Iyer to such an extent that he caught him by the neck and caned him in front of the students of the class. After a few months, when Abdul Kalam secured full marks in Mathematics, his teacher became so happy with his pupil’s success that he narrated the incident to the entire school at morning assembly and said—“Whomsoever I cane becomes a great man! Take my word, this boy is going to bring glory to his school and to his teachers.”
How absolutely prophetic Ramakrishna Iyer was!
10. He is especially grateful to Jallaluddin and Samsuddin who contributed most to the uniqueness of his childhood and made all the difference in his later life.
11. His teachers at St. Joseph were true followers of Kanchi Paramacharya, who evoked people to “enjoy the action of giving.”
12. During his study in the final year at St. Joseph’s, he acquired a taste for English literature. He began reading the great classics—Tolstoy, Scott and Hardy—and then despite their exotic settings, he moved on to some works in Philosophy. This developed a genius in him for poetry.
13. Dr. Abdul Kalam says—“I wonder why some people tend to see science as something which takes man away from God. As I look at it, the path of science can always wind through the heart. For me, science has always been the path to spiritual enrichment and self-realisation.”
14. The following lines of John Milton are a great source of inspiration to Dr. Abdul Kalam—
…What if the Sun
Be centre to the World, and other stars…
The planet earth, so steadfast though she seem,
In sensibly three different motions move?
Paradise Lost, Book VIII
15. In the course of his education at MIT, there were mainly three teachers who shaped his thinking; and one of those three teachers was Prof. Sponder, who taught him technical aerodynamics. He was an Austrian with rich practical experience in aeronautical engineering.
The most touching memory of MIT, as Dr. Abdul Kalam recounts, is of Prof. Sponder. Abdul Kalam, along with other graduating students, was posing for a group photograph as part of a farewell ritual. The students had lined up in three rows with the professors seated in the front. Abdul Kalam was standing in the third row. Suddenly Prof. Sponder got up, looked for him, and seeing him standing in the third row, said—“Come and sit with me in the front. You are my best student and hard work will help you bring a great name for your teachers in future. Let God be your hope, your stay, your guide and provide the lantern for your feet in your journey into the future.”
Here, the narration of the above incident becomes more significant because it was same Abdul Kalam who was asked to go and sit in the back row by his teacher, simply because he, being a Muslim student, was sitting next to a boy who wore a sacred thread and was son of a Hindu priest.
16. His following lines offer a glimpse of his philosophical thoughts :
“Everything solid, thus, contains much empty space within and everything stationary contains great movement within. It is as though the great dance of Shiva is being performed on earth during every moment of our existence.”
17. Having been disappointed after the interview at DTD & P (Air), Abdul Kalam trekked down to Rishikesh from Delhi. There he met Swami Sivananda, who consoled him to a great extent. At his unsuccessful attempt to join the Indian Air Force, Swamiji said—
“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear…Accept your destiny and go ahead with your life. You are not destined to become an Air Force pilot. What you are destined to become is not revealed now but it is predetermined. Forget this failure, as it was essential to lead you to your destined path. Search, instead, for the future purpose of your existence. Become one with yourself, my son! Surrender yourself to the wish of God.”
18. The high priest of Rameswaram temple, Pakshi Lakshmana Sastry, used to tell Kalam during his childhood days—
“Seek the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”
As the Bible says—“Ask and you shall receive.”
19. Abdul Kalam’s hard work and sincerity brought results. He got the opportunity to proceed to America for a six-month training programme on sounding rocket launching techniques at the NASA work centres. Ahmed Jallaluddin and Samsuddin came to see him off at Bombay airport. This was for the first time that Abdul Kalam was going to leave his country. He was emotionally struck and had tears in his eyes. He still remembers Jallaluddin’s sweet words—“Azad, we have always loved you, and we believe in you. We shall always be proud of you.”
20. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Prof. Sarabhai were of the view—“…if Indians were to play a meaningful role in the community of nations, they must be second to none in the application of advanced technologies to their real-life problems.”
21. Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam has taken great inspirations from the writings of Khalil Gibran. He has always found his words full of wisdom—“Bread baked without love is a bitter bread that feeds but half a man’s hunger.”
22. Prof. Sarabhai was of the view that errors could be used as opportunities to promote innovation and the development of new ideas. His approach to mistakes rested on the assumption that they were inevitable but generally manageable.
And this is how the failure of pyro timer circuit led to the birth of a rocket engineering laboratory.
23. When appointed as the Project Manager of SLV Project, Dr. Brahm Prakash had said to Dr. Abdul Kalam that he should not focus on what he saw as other people’s strengths compared to his own, but instead, he should attempt to expand their abilities. Dr. Brahm Prakash had said—“Everyone will work to create their bit of SLV; your problem is going to be your dependency on others in accomplishing the total SLV. The SLV mission will be accomplished with, and through, a large number of people. You will require a tremendous amount of tolerance and patience.”
24. This reminded him of what his father used to read to him from the Holy Qur’an on the distinction between right and wrong—“We have sent no apostle before you who did not eat or walk about the market squares. We test you by means of one another. Will you not have patience?”
25. After Dr. Abdul Kalam took up the leadership of executing the SLV-3 project, his routine used to be to start with a stroll of about 2 km around the lodge he was living in. He used to prepare a general schedule during his morning walk, and emphasize two or three things he would like to accomplish during the day, including at least one thing that would help achieve long-term goals.
26. The lines from which Dr. Kalam draws inspiration are—
“If you want to leave your footprints
On the sands of time
Do not drag your feet.”
(Composed by Dr. Abdul Kalam)
27. Dr. Abdul Kalam strongly believes that feedom with responsibility is the only sound basis for personal happiness. He says that in order to strengthen personal freedom he adopts two techniques—
(a) “First by building your own education and skills. Knowledge is a tangible asset, quite often the most important tool in your work. The more up-to-date the knowledge you possess, the freer you are.”
(b) “The second way is to develop a passion for personal responsibility. The sovereign way to personal freedom is to help determine the forces that determine you. Be active! Take on responsibility!”
28. Upon hearing the sad news of the death of his brother-in-law and mentor, Janab Ahmed Jallaluddin, Dr. Abdul Kalam reached Rameswaram, travelling overnight in a combination of district buses. His father was bitterly sad-stricken but was man enough to check his tears from rolling down his cheeks. He held the hands of his son, Dr. Abdul Kalam, in his hands firmly for a long time and then said—“Do you not see, Abul, how the Lord lenghthens the shadows? Had it been His will, He could have made them constant. But he mkes the sun their guide, little by little he shortens them. It is He who has made the night a mantle for you, and sleep a rest. Jallaluddin has gone into a long sleep—a dreamless sleep, a complete rest of all his being within simple unconsciousness.”
29. Dr. Abdul Kalam’s father, who had lived on Rameswaram island for 102 years, passed away in the year 1976. Soon afterwards, his mother also passed away. He rushed to Rameswaram and performed the last rites of his mother in the morning. Now both the people who had formed him had left for their heavenly abode. Dr. Abdul Kalam went and prayed in the mosque for peace. He begged God’s forgiveness. Suddenly he heard as if out of nowhere, but loud enough and clear—
“They carried out the task I designed for them with great care, dedication and honesty and came back to me. Why are you mourning their day of accomplishment? Concentrate on the assignments that lie before you, and proclaim my glory through your deeds.”
30. The world famous scientist, designer, production engineer, administrator, technology manager, rocket engineer—Wernher von Braun—had once told Dr. Abdul Kalam about successes and failures—“…you should always remember that we don’t just build on successes, we also build on failures.”
31. Warnher Von Braun had also said—“Total commitment is not just hard work, it is total involvement.”
32. Dr. Kalam believes that Dr. Brahm Prakash not only reinforced the traits which he had acquired from Prof. Sarabhai, but also helped him give them new dimensions.
33. Dr. Abdul Kalam, after his SLV-3 success, received a telephone call from Prof. Dhawan, asking him to join him the next morning. They were to meet the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi. The clothes Dr. Abdul Kalam was wearing were ordinary and simple. He did not even have a proper suit which he could wear on such an important occasion. When he told Prof. Dhawan about his problem, he said to Dr. Abdul Kalam not to worry about his dress. “You are beautifully clothed in your success,” said Prof. Dhawan.
34. Some of the close associates of Dr. Abdul Kalam turned envious when he was selected for Padma Bhushan award. Of course there also were some who shared his happiness, but some were filled with jealousy thinking that he was being unduly singled out for recognition. At this Dr. Kalam expressed his feelings—“Why do some people fail to see the great values of life because of sadly twisted thought processes? Happiness, satisfaction, and success in life depend on making the right choices, the winning choices.”
35. Once Prof. Dhawan had said to Dr. Kalam—“You have to dream before your dreams can come true. Some people stride towards whatever it is that they want in life; others shuffle their feet and never get started because they do not know what they want—and do not know how to find it either.”
36. There is a very valuable statement of Robert Schuller—“God can do tremendous things through the person who doesn’t care about who gets the credit. The ego involvement must go.”
37. The following lines of Dr. Abdul Kalam speak of his modesty, simplicity, humility and greatness—
“I do not wish to set myself as an example to others, but I believe that a few souls may draw inspiration and come to balance that ultimate satisfaction which can only be found in the life of the spirit. God’s providence is your inheritance. The bloodline of my great-grand father Avul, my grandfather Pakir, and my father Jainulabdeen may end with Abdul Kalam, but His grace will never end, for it is Eternal.”
